$6 Trillion in Fake Bonds Seized in Switzerland
Italian anti-mafia prosecutors Friday ordered the seizure in Switzerland of fake US Treasury bonds with a face value of $6.0 trillion — or over a third of US national debt. The bonds were found hidden in false compartments in three safety deposit boxes transferred in 2007 from Hong Kong to Zurich and eight arrests have also been made in Italy as part of the investigation, prosecutors said.
Investigators said that members of a criminal network had tried to use the bonds in emerging markets or give them to banks in exchange for money.
The operation was “the biggest for this type of investigation,” Giovanni Colangelo, the head of the prosecutor’s office in the city of Potenza in southern Italy which is leading the investigation, told reporters. “Everything began with an investigation into mafia clans in the Vulture-Melfese area” in the southern Basilicata region, Colangelo said.
The investigation has allowed detectives to uncover “an international network with people implicated in numerous countries,” he added. “The counterfeiting of bonds, the transfer of the deposit boxes from Hong Kong to Switzerland, the global travel (of the suspects) had an enormous cost and we think that the interests are at a high level,” he said.
Friday’s was by no means the first seizure of fake US bonds by Italian authorities but by far the one with the highest face value. In September 2009, Italian police seized $116 billion in phoney bonds and arrested two Filipino nationals carrying them at Milan’s airport.
In June of the same year police arrested two Japanese nationals on the Italian-Swiss border carrying bonds with a face value of $134 billion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Auditor: EU Agencies Mismanaging Their Budgets
BRUSSELS — A report by the European Court of Auditors has found problems in the way the EU’s 31 agencies manage their budgets. The findings are likely to fuel the debate about the usefulness of the bodies in a time of austerity. The report — sent on Wednesday (15 February) to the European Parliament and seen by EUobserver — analyses the costs, financial management and “operational efficiency” of 22 out of the EU’s 31 autonomous agencies.
The agencies do studies on issues ranging from drug addiction to trademark registration and police co-operation. They are an object of national pride and hotly contested negotiations between member states when it comes to deciding on their seat.
In its introduction, the report notes dryly that “the first two agencies were created in 1975” and that 10 more were formed in the 1990s “after a considerable gap.” The process sped up in the past 10 years, when 19 more were set up.
As most of the bodies’ budgets are based on EU subsidies, the Court of Auditors looked at their book-keeping practices and found that “increased vigilance is required in respect to the establishment of an agency’s budget.”
Eleven out of the 22 surveyed could not properly account for half the expenses they filed in 2010, the auditors found. “A low degree of correspondence between accruals (justifications) and carry-forwards (planned expenditures) may indicate that an agency is committing budget unrelated to the budgetary year or is experiencing delays in the implementation of its budget. Eleven agencies show a correspondence, in 2010, of accruals versus carry-forwards of less than 50 percent,” the report says.
Another problem are the large “management boards” of some agencies — normally comprising around 30 representatives of member states, the European Commission, industry stakeholders and observers.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Congress Passes Extension of Payroll Tax Cut and Jobless Benefits
With members of both parties expressing distaste at some of the particulars, Congress on Friday voted to extend payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits. President Obama has said he would sign a bill as soon as Congress passes it. A compromise allowing the extension of the tax holiday for the rest of the year came together quickly this week, as Republicans decided it was not politically viable to resist in an election year. It avoided an abrupt increase in payroll taxes that would have taken effect on March 1, returning them to the level of 2010.
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A Muslim Scouter Reflects on Scouting’s Interfaith Strengths
By Mark Ray
From the March-April 2012 issue of Scouting magazine
NOVEMBER 1990 WAS an eventful month for Abdul-Rashid Abdullah. On the 16th, he converted from Catholicism to Islam. On the 24th, he completed his Eagle Scout board of review. Scouting and religion have been central to his life ever since.
During a stint in the U.S. Army, Abdullah served as Scoutmaster for about a year, but his serious adult involvement began in 2006, when he moved to northern Virginia with his family. He enrolled his three sons in Pack 1576, chartered to the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) and went on to serve as den leader, Cubmaster, and now pack trainer. A Wood Badge participant and staff member, he works with other units at ADAMS and in his council. At the 2010 National Scout Jamboree, he served as the imam of the mosque set up by the National Islamic Committee on Scouting, the first mosque constructed at a national jamboree.
People who don’t know much about Islam might wonder: how well do Islam and Scouting align? The Scout Law, the Scout Oath-those are very Islamic values. In Islamic school, you learn the academic aspects of Islam. In Scouting, you get a chance to apply the religion. We, as Muslim Scout leaders, can observe Scouts’ behavior and then guide them according to both Muslim principles and Scouting principles. We can say “a Scout is trustworthy,” and then in the next moment we can mention the verse in the Koran that says: “O ye that believe! Betray not the trust of God and the Messenger, nor misappropriate knowingly things entrusted to you” (8:27).
Give us another example. Let’s say you’re out camping, and you’re short on water. You have to wash up to pray. Are you going to use the only water in your canteen for that? You need to know what alternatives you have. In boys’ normal lives, that’s something buried in a book that they may have read some time.
How do you honor Muslim practices such as Friday prayers at places like summer camp where you don’t control the schedule? We’re basically traveling while we’re at camp, so we combine our noon and afternoon prayers and our sunset and evening prayers, which is an allowance given to travelers. Friday is usually the day when Scouts have free periods or a campwide activity. We spend that time doing our prayers. Last summer at Goshen Scout Reservation, we invited anyone who wanted to come to our service. We had our neighboring troop come by, as well as the Protestant and Catholic chaplains for the camp. They really enjoyed the service, and I think it went a long way toward helping them understand where Muslims are coming from.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
BYUH [Brigham Young University — Hawaii] Arab Club Members Visit Mosque in Honolulu
Members of the BYU-Hawaii Arab club expanded their understanding of the world when they traveled to one of the only Muslim mosques on the Hawaiian Islands earlier this month. In an attempt to strengthen inter-faith relationships and increase awareness of Islamic culture, the Arab club invited all students on campus to join them on their trip. More than 40 tired, yet eager, young men and women gathered at the front of the Little Circle early on Feb. 4 to wait for the bus that would take them to the mosque in Honolulu. Once on the bus, the women of the group, who had either received or brought scarves of their own, learned how to tie the scarves over their hair in order to show respect to members of the Islam faith. “I think it says a lot about the character of our students that they were willing to wake up early and spend their Saturday learning about another religion,” said Barbara Shelton, a junior in political science from Saudi Arabia, president of the Arab club.
Once at the mosque, students were met by Muslim Imam (Islamic Community Leader), Dr. Ismail Elshikh. Imam Ismail memorized the Koran and become a Hafidh by the age of ten, and he now holds a B.A. of Islamic Da’awah from Al-Ashar University and a Ph D. in Islamic studies. Ismail has been serving at the Honolulu mosque since 2003. The community leader was more than willing to answer questions from the visiting students and faculty. After an in depth Q and A, Imam Ismail took participants on a tour of the mosque-a renovated residency, complete with men’s and women’s prayer halls, a Wudu area, and Da’wa Center. The tour concluded outside the mosque, where students took a group picture with Imam Ismail in front of the main entrance.
Josh Mason, a sophomore in psychology and music from Oklahoma, is the treasurer of the Arab Club. He attended the mosque trip as both an Arab club representative and also as someone very interested in Islamic religion. “One of my best friends back home is Muslim, so I learned a lot from him before this trip. I liked the fact that the Imam didn’t condemn others for believing something slightly different from Islamic religion. It was really fun. I hope that the school can offer even more future opportunities for students to learn about religions around the world,” Mason expressed.
Following their experience at the Mosque, the BYUH group took the bus to an Egyptian and Mediterranean cuisine restaurant, Pyramid, and enjoyed a buffet style meal while they discussed their cultural experience. Mike Snow, a freshman in social work from Utah, was also a part of the mosque trip. “I went because I thought it sounded like a good cultural experience, and I wanted learn about other religions around the world. I liked learning about the similarities between our church and Islamic religion. It’s cool because there really are other religions out there that have a lot of truth in them; all over the world there are people who take what truth they have and try to do good with it. I just felt a lot of love for everybody and their differences in the world. I thought
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Dispute Between Time Warner Cable and MSG Network is Reportedly Resolved
A dispute between Time Warner Cable and the MSG Network, which left cable customers without access to the Knicks and four New York-area N.H.L. teams, including the Rangers, for seven weeks, has been resolved, according to a person with ties to Time Warner.
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Fighting Islamophobia at Yale
by Mostafa Al-Alusi and Faisal Hamid
Since the end of the Jim Crow era, politicians have dressed racism in the rhetoric of food stamps and illegal aliens. But as the past 10 years have shown, it seems that politicians need no such disguise for Islamophobia. Unspoken assumptions often provide more insight into American public opinion than what can be explicitly stated. Public figures today assume that they can openly disparage Muslims, thinking that Muslims are worthy of our fear and hatred. This Islamophobia pervades the discourse of the Republican primaries. Putting aside the claim, still common today, that Barack Hussein Obama is secretly a Muslim, let’s take a look at what some of the current and former GOP hopefuls have to say about Islam.
While he was a frontrunner in the race, Herman Cain said he would never appoint a Muslim to his cabinet and that the majority of Muslims hold extremist views. You would have to work hard to be more blatantly intolerant than that. What is even more deplorable, however, is that this comment had little to no impact on his popularity. Newt Gingrich, who famously claimed that Palestinians are “an invented people,” is known for his support of patently Islamophobic anti-Shariah legislation, such as the bill Alabama State Senator Gerald Allen proposed last year that would ban courts from citing Shariah and other foreign laws. When asked at a press conference to define Shariah, Allen was unable to muster a response. It turned out the text of Allen’s bill that defined Shariah was lifted from Wikipedia.
Even the moderate frontrunner, Mitt Romney, based much of his 2008 campaign on the need to combat “violent, radical Islamic fundamentalism.” In a debate last month, he claimed, “The right course for America is to recognize we’re under attack … [by] radical violent jihadists around the world.” It is exactly this sort of simple-minded explanation of world events that feeds America’s growing paranoia of Islam and Muslims. If this is the rhetoric we tolerate from a man who might be our next president, imagine the kind of discrimination that Muslims face on a day-to-day basis.
You don’t need to go very far to see the real consequences of negative attitudes towards Muslims. Yale Muslims — your classmates — have been (and, judging by the direction of our society, will continue to be) victims of Islamophobia. Rakibul Mazumder ‘13 recalls growing up in post-9/11 New York City, where he faced random searches and profiling on a weekly basis. To his surprise, the hate followed him to Yale; he recalls being harassed by drunken partiers one night with anti-Muslim slurs. Parents of Muslims students said their goodbyes at the beginning of last school year knowing that their sons and daughters were coming to New Haven just as Connecticut Muslims had requested police protection for Friday prayers. “Politicians and pundits are playing the fear-mongering game,” said James Jones, president of the Masjid al-Islam mosque on George Street. “It absolutely scares me.” For Muslim Yalies, the safety of being Muslim in New Haven has come into question.
As the Alabama state senator’s inability to define Shariah attests, much Islamophobia is based in utter ignorance of Islam. College campuses have historically been influential in combating such ignorance, and Yale in particular has been exemplary in this regard. In the 1960s, Yale Chaplain William Coffin organized busloads of students to challenge racism in the Jim Crow South. Those Yalies put themselves in harm’s way to combat hate.
However, the situation today is often different from the Jim Crow South and merits a different response. Today, we can be informed and inform others. To promote this goal, the Yale Muslim Students Association recently organized Islamic Awareness Week, hosting events every day that exhibited a different side of Islam and Muslims — one based in truth rather than fear. In the tradition of the Yalies who opposed Jim Crow, we must spread the word: people like Herman Cain are wrong. Not only are they wrong, but the Islamophobia they represent has no place in acceptable public discourse. Just as it was absolutely unacceptable for the mayor of East Haven to make offensive statements against Hispanics, so too should we be outraged about inflammatory comments against Muslims.
While Islamophobia is frightening for so many reasons, Yalies have a chance to make their mark in stemming the growth of intolerance. Educating ourselves is an important first step in eradicating this hateful mindset and progressing to a more respectful public discourse.
Mostafa Al-Alusi and Faisal Hamid are juniors in Morse and Trumbull Colleges. They are the president and vice president of the Muslim Students Association.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Keeping NASA’s Next Space Telescope Under Control: Q&A With Scott Willoughby
NASA’s next generation James Webb Space Telescope is an ambitious infrared observatory that is expected to yield exciting results about the universe, but in recent years, the project’s swelling budget has been a major hurdle. Pegged as the successor to the nearly 22-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will probe the most distant reaches of the universe with its sensitive infrared instruments.
The $8.8 billion observatory has become synonymous with cost overruns, and last summer, House appropriators recommended scrapping the project entirely. But JWST survived, and in November, President Barack Obama granted NASA $17.8 billion for the 2012 fiscal year, which included full funding for the observatory. Still, the project remains a source of contention, and critics claim that JWST is tying up valuable funds from other worthy science missions. Obama’s proposed 2013 budget for NASA revealed earlier this week, for example, includes deep cuts to planetary science missions to help pay for JWST.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Springsteen: US Should be ‘More Like Sweden’
Bruce Springsteen wants to see the United States transformed into something closer to a Swedish-style welfare state, the rock legend said Thursday as he unveiled his latest studio album “The Wrecking Ball” to reporters. During a press conference in Paris, The Boss explained that much of the inspiration for his new album, set for release on March 6th, is anger at what he sees as the crushing of the American Dream in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
“I have friends who lost everything they had,” Springsteen explained, according to the Dagens Nyhter (DN) newspaper. In 2009, he put pen to paper began writing the album’s lead track “We take care of our own”. “In this song, I pose a number of questions. Questions which I later try to find answers to in other songs,” said Springsteen.
The 62-year-old rocker claimed the 2008 financial crisis was the result of decades of deregulation that spawned an ethic of unbridled greed. “We’ve destroyed the idea of an equal playing field,” he said, according to the AFP news agency.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Terror Suspect Arrested Near Capitol in FBI Sting
WASHINGTON (AP) — A 29-year-old Moroccan man, who believed he was working with al-Qaida, was arrested Friday near the U.S. Capitol as he was planning to detonate what he thought was a suicide vest, given to him by undercover operatives, officials said.
Amine El Khalifi of Alexandria, Va., was taken into custody with an inoperable gun and inert explosives, according to a counterterrorism official. He arrived near the Capitol in a van with the two undercover operatives, and walked toward the building, according to court papers. He was arrested before he left the parking garage.
El Khalifi made a brief appearance in federal court in Alexandria, on Friday afternoon, wearing a green shirt and black pants and holding his arms together behind his back. A judge set a bail hearing for Wednesday. FBI agents in blue jackets raided a red brick rambler home in Arlington, Va., after the arrest. A police car blocked the entrance.
A criminal complaint charges him with knowingly and unlawfully attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against property that is owned and used by the United States. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
El Khalifi, who was under constant surveillance, expressed interest in killing at least 30 people and considered targeting a building in Alexandria and a restaurant, synagogue and a place where military personnel gather in Washington before he settled on the Capitol after canvassing that area a couple of times, the counterterrorism official said. During the investigation, El Khalifi went with undercover operatives to a quarry in West Virginia in January to practice detonating explosives, according to court documents.
He believed he was working with an al-Qaida operative on the plot, according to an affidavit.
El Khalifi came to the U.S. when he was 16 years old and is unemployed and not believed to be associated with al-Qaida. He had been under investigation for about a year and had overstayed his visitor visa, which expired in 1999, making him in the country illegally, according to court documents.
According to the affidavit filed by an FBI agent, El Khalifi told acquaintances in January 2011 that he agreed the “war on terrorism” was a “war on Muslims” and that they needed to be ready for war.
Before settling on a plot to conduct a suicide bombing in the Capitol, El Khalifi considered blowing up an office building in Alexandria, where military officials worked and a restaurant in Washington to target military officials who gathered there. He even purchased supplies including nails for the operation, according to the affidavit.
Later, when he settled on bombing the Capitol, El Khalifi asked his associates for more explosives that would be detonated by dialing a cellphone number. In January, he unknowingly told authorities he wanted to know if an explosion would be large enough to destroy an entire building.
El Khalifi met with an undercover law enforcement officer, who gave him an automatic weapon, which had been rendered inoperable. El Khalifi carried the firearm around the room, practiced pulling the trigger and looking at himself in the mirror.
A former landlord in Arlington said he believed El Khalifi was suspicious and called police a year and a half ago…
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Tightrope Daredevil Will Walk Niagara Falls
A daredevil will become the first in more than a century to attempt to cross the gorge at Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The Niagara Parks Commission has reversed its decision in December to deny Nik Wallenda’s request to perform the stunt after hearing from the high-wire artist that it could generate significant economic returns for the region.
New York state and the mayor of Niagara Falls, New York, had already agreed to it, so the Canadian commission’s permission was the last obstacle. “This decision was approved in part in recognition of the role that stunting has played in the history and promotion of Niagara Falls,” Niagara Parks Commission chair Janice Thomson said in a statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Will County Board Tentatively Approves Aurora Mosque
Chicago — The Will County Board has given tentative approval to a controversial mosque near Aurora. Supporters of an Islamic worship center on South Carls Drive plan to renovate a home and barn on a five-acre property. Opponents said the center’s location would aggravate flooding and traffic problems. The people who want to build the mosque have to get permits and conduct some studies before any ground is broken.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Government Ends Funding for Palestine House
Mississauga-based Palestine House has had government funding for its newcomer settlement and language instruction services cancelled because of what Ottawa calls the cultural centre’s “pattern of support for extremism.”
Nejatian pointed to several events as cause for concern, most recently a gathering hosted by Palestine House that, according to the minister, celebrated the release of hundreds of terrorists. Additionally, a 2008 event at the cultural centre honouring Dr. George Habash, founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), caught the government’s attention. The PFLP is the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization and, in the 1960s and ‘70s, was responsible for numerous armed attacks and aircraft hijackings.
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Containing Super-Flus: Controversy Brews Over Scientists’ Creation of Killer Viruses
Should scientists be allowed to create extremely aggressive and highly infectious influenza viruses? Dutch virologists have done it and, in the process, triggered a fierce debate over the risks of bioterrorism and the potential release of deadly viruses.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Firms Join Gold Rush on Drones
BRUSSELS — EU firms have joined the gold rush on military and civilian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). But ethical and legal questions dog the technology. The global UAV market is worth $6 billion (€4.6bn) a year and will hit $12 billion by 2018, according to US forecaster Teal Group.
It is not a real market. Currently, military-industrial complexes in China, Israel, the EU, Russia and the US make drones for their armed forces and sell them to close allies only. Almost half the spending is government research. But with big money at stake, some analysts predict rapid proliferation.
“China has made a copy of the predator — the pterodactyl. It’s identified a hole in the market for attack UAVs and it plans to sell more widely. This will force everyone to sell more widely … I’ve traced 51 countries which are interested in acquiring this kind of technology, but I’m sure there are more out there,” Noel Sharkey — a British robotics professor who advises the military — told EUobserver.
The predator was made notorious by CIA officers who sit in Nevada and launch rockets at people in Pakistan with no judicial or congressional oversight.
The next step on the military side is combat drones (Ucavs) which can fly in “dirty” theatres of conflict — places with decent anti-aircraft defences. Another step is autonomy — drones which fire weapons based on algorithms because the human operator is too slow or cut off by electronic jamming.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: President Wulff Resigns
German President Christian Wulff resigned in disgrace on Friday, finally bowing to pressure and a lack of trust on the back of months of revelations about blurred between personal, business and political advantage. In a statement made in Berlin at 11 a.m., Wulff said he could no longer carry out the duties of the president within the country, or abroad as he had clearly lost the full trust of the people of the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Frankfurt Begins Old Town Reconstruction
Known for its skyscrapers, Frankfurt once had one of Germany’s prettiest Gothic centres. But part of the city’s historic old town destroyed in Allied bombing raids in 1944 is now being partially rebuilt. A total of 35 new buildings are planned for the area between the cathedral and The Römer — Frankfurt’s town hall and one of its most important architectural landmarks. At least eight of these will be exact replicas of the historic buildings destroyed in the Second World War while 15 will be a mix of old and new.
So far €130 million in government funding has been invested in the project, which will is expected to reach completion in 2016. Many buildings have already been purchased even though the symbolic cornerstone was only laid last month. But opinion on the project remains split between those wanting a wanting a complete reconstruction of the Frankfurt Altstadt, or old town, and others fearing it will be historic Disneyland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Greece and the Melian Dialogue of Thucydides (Obscure)
by Ambrose Pritchard-Evans
This was sent to me by a reader. It is from the Melian Dialogue by Thucydides. Athens (then the big bully on block) wanted control over the little island of Melos as a strategic asset in its quarrel with Sparta. It gave the Melians an ultimatum: either submit to Athenian control or face annihilation. The Melians chose defiance. They were crushed. Those men captured were slaughtered. The women and children were sold into slavery. But the Athenian treatment of the Melians caused horror across the Greek world; it marked the moment of Athenian overreach and the beginning of their decline, as vulnerable city states allied with Sparta to protect themselves. Athenian arrogance backfired disastrously. In the end, Melian exiles retook their island.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Thieves Steal Artefacts From Ancient Olympia Museum
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS — Thieves broke into the Ancient Olympia Museum on Friday morning and stole between 60 and 70 artefacts, daily Kathimerini website reports quoting sources from the police. According to authorities, two robbers wearing hoods used hammers to smash their way into the museum at about 7.30 a.m. They tied and gagged the one female employee that was on duty and then stole the ancient relics.
Archaeological experts are assessing the damage and the number of items that have been stolen. The museum, located next to the site where the Ancient Olympics were held, contains numerous valuable artefacts. Skai TV reported that Culture Minister Pavlous Geroulanos has tendered his resignation to premier Lucas Papademos.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Is an Ancient Egyptian Curse Killing the Sale of a 30-Million-Euro Italian Villa?
Perched on a cliff along the Italian Riviera, the Villa Altachiara is one of the Mediterranean’s most luxurious, picturesque — and pricey — estates.
But beyond its 1000 square meters, 40 rooms and breathtaking views of the sea, some say that this 19th century mansion comes with another feature: a curse, punctuated by the mysterious death of its last resident, the Countess Francesca Vacca Agusta, who fell into the sea on a stormy night in 2001.
Add all this up, and an estimated value of 33.7 million euros, and the Villa Altachiara has become a tricky selling proposition for even the sharpest of Italian real estate agents.
After years of going unsold, the asking price will by knocked down by one-fifth for a planned auction set to open in May. The upcoming sale comes after the foreclosure in 2007 of Dmc, a holding company established by the current owners of the property, Maurizio Raggio and Tirso Chazaro, a pair of former companions of countess Agusta.
The villa’s history dates back to the late 1800s when it was built by George Edward Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, the English aristocrat who would go on to discover the tomb of Tutankhamun, shortly before dying in 1923. A young female relative of Lord Carnavon would later slip on a steep cliff-side ladder and fall to her death.
Indeed, the superstitious say the curse was placed on the mansion by the Egyptian tomb discoveries of its first owner.
Since Agusta’s death, exactly 13 potential buyers opened negotiations to buy the Villa Altachiara, but no deal was ever reached. Current co-owner Raggio denies rumors that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich might be interested.
“The Russians are rich,” he said. “But not rich enough.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: New Round of Accusations of Widespread Anorexia at La Scala
Dance officials at the world-famous Milan opera house were forced to issue a formal denial this week of reports of rampant ballerina eating disorders. Now a second dancer, and the mother of another, have added new accusations of a troubling atmosphere at La Scala.
La Scala opera house is facing another round of accusations that its world-class dance troupe is rife with eating disorders. Just two days after officials at the renowned Milan opera publicly denied that there was a problem, the mother of a ballerina told an Italian television program that anorexia and other psychological ailments are widespread.
“My daughter suffers from eating disorders, like all her colleagues do. They look at each other obsessively,” the dancer’s mother told an interviewer for Le Iene, in a report to be aired Friday night. “They check each other’s weight.” The woman also confirmed earlier reports that many of the ballerinas’ menstruation cycles have been interrupted because of stress and dietary ailments.
Another girl told Le Iene that the dance troupe is plagued by a critical and hyper-competitive environment. “Every day they tell us something like, ‘You are an alien, your head is too big, your pelvis is too short, your legs are too long,’“ said the ballerina. Earlier in the week, La Scala formally rejected accusations leveled by Mariafrancesca Garritano, a ballerina who was fired after having spoken of widespread cases of anorexia in an interview with the British newspaper The Observer.
At La Scala “one in five girls is anorexic,” Garritano had declared. The academy rejected the accusations. “There is no anorexia emergency,” read a statement from La Scala. “This is not only false, but it is prejudicial to the image of the company and of its members.” According to the academy managers, Garritano’s accusation were a way to promote her book “The Truth, Please, About Ballet.”
Frédéric Olivieri, a well-known dancer and director of the Ballet School at La Scala denies any accusations of a sadistic atmosphere. “Discipline, study and rigor are the three golden rules for any successful dancer,” he said. “But I do not agree with charges of any kind of excesses.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Monti to Tax Roman Catholic Church Properties
The Italian technocrat government of Mario Monti has announced plans forcing the church to pay property tax on buildings used for commercial purposes. The tax is estimated to raise revenues of minimum €500 million, with the Catholic Church being one of Italy’s largest private real estate holders.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Last Day to Exchange the French Franc
Anyone holding any French franc notes will have to take them to the Banque de France on Friday if they want to exchange them for euros. The final death knell of the French franc will be sounded when the bank closes on Friday, after which notes of 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 francs will no longer be accepted.
The notes received by the Banque de France will be turned into paper bricks that can be used for heating. The bank believes there are still 4 billion francs lying around the country, equal to €600 million ($788 million).
A campaign has been running on TV to get the message across. In the two commercials, the same actor plays two different characters who finds franc notes stashed away.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Good Foreign Cheeses ‘Too Cheap’: Dairy Giant
Norway’s vast dairy cooperative Tine, which enjoys a near monopoly on the domestic market, has called for the country to impose much higher import duties on quality foreign cheeses. With the import of cheese from abroad up by 14 percent last year, Tine is concerned that domestic producers will start to feel the pinch unless the government takes action, newspaper Aftenposten reports.
“We want higher barriers for the import of cheese. This is needed to safeguard Norwegian products,” managing director Stein Øiom told the newspaper. If Tine gets its way, customers already paying through the nose for their foreign Brie, Cheddar or Gruyère will likely see another major jump in prices.
Tine wants tariffs to be set as a percentage of the price of the cheeses in their home countries. Currently, customs duty is paid at a fixed rate per kilo, regardless of the quality of the cheese, the paper said. Often accused of blatant trade protectionism, Tine makes little secret of the fact that it would rather Norwegian cheese eaters opted for domestic alternatives.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Islamic Group Cancels Unity Day
A group has cancelled its “Islam Unity Day 2012” after two communities denied it permission to gather. The Islamic Central Council Switzerland, or IZRS, today said it must cancel the event planned for February 25 because there isn’t enough time to find an alternate location. Earlier this week Spreitenbach in the canton of Aargau claimed the Islamic group deceived it when applying for a permit to gather. The form was filled out by IMS, a production company associated with the IZRS. Spreitenbach thought is was a school, which uses the same acronym. Previously Bülach in the canton of Zurich also denied the group a permit to gather.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Alif Academy Needs Your Help
We would like to bring to your attention the difficulties being faced by our school from the London Borough of Newham. They have made clear their opposition to our faith school and below you will find a brief synopsis of the injustices and abuses we have had to endure:
- In January 2011 Alif Academy began a parallel application for registration as an independent Islamic faith school with the Department for Education and appointed an architect to handle planning permission with London Borough of Newham (LBN) in January 2011.
- A pre-app meeting took place in the spring of 2011 with LBN. LBN’s feedback was hostile and written in a very negative light. ‘…I would advise that the policy position in terms of supporting a[n] Islamic School within the Borough would be unlikely to change’.
- We were hugely disappointed LBN would not support us with the planning process. They were unable or unwilling to remain objective and were determined to see the site of the school left derelict, whilst 400 children were waiting for a primary school place.
- During the summer of 2011, Alif Academy invited Councillors for a Launch Event. We know that all Councillors were written to shortly after this by LBN. The memo was inaccurate and written to mislead and deceive, asking Councillors to stay away from this event.
- LBN wrote directly to the Department for Education (DFE) making further baseless allegations that, Alif Academy was operated by extremist and/or terrorist groups. The DFE requested evidence of these allegations from LBN and none were given. On September 15th the DFE registered Alif Academy and it could now open.
- Further false allegations were then made by LBN relating to breaches of health and safety at the now operational OFSTED registered school.
- Alif Academy informed LBN of its full planning application submission date of 23/09/11. On the same day an enforcement notice was issued against our school, blocking the application.
- The Nursery Education Grant which is a Government entitlement for every 3-4 year old has been unlawfully withheld by LBN since the school opened. Depriving our young children of free school milk and other important resources for their education.
- The Government has now intervened and called a Public Inquiry, because they feel there is significant public interest. This is our opportunity to expose the hypocrisy and prejudice of Newham. The school is run as a charitable trust and urgently needs your help to raise awareness and to raise money to fight against these injustices. Please forward this important call for help to all of your contacts and we will keep you informed Insha’Allah of all new developments.
To watch the news coverage of this story, please click on the links below:…
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Community Leaders Argue Official Racism Figures Are Unlikely to Tell the Full Story
Community leaders warn racism in Tayside and Fife may be a bigger problem than the latest crime statistics show.
New figures obtained under a freedom of information request reveal residents of Pakistani origin continue to be the group at greatest risk. Seventy-eight people with links to the country were targeted in Tayside in 2010/11 — a 15% rise on the previous 12 months. White Scots are the second-most likely group to encounter racism, with 50 incidents reported over 2010/11. The figures are similar in Fife, with 79 people of Pakistani heritage subjected to racism and 37 cases against white Scots. Despite education in schools and laws deterring race crime there are still cultural divides in communities. Abdul Rehman (24), manager at the Dundee Community Centre, which operates through Dundee Central Mosque, believes racism will always exist. He said: “It’s still here but it is not as bad in Dundee as in other places. I have been a victim of it in the past but have had nothing in a long while. I have, however, spoken with a lot of other people who are still being faced with it.”
The Dundee man said he encountered racism while at Harris Academy, but believes the problem is more prevalent today among pupils.
He said: “I was called racist names now and again at school but it never got into physical abuse. Having spoken with young people I know that it still goes on.” He added: “There are white gangs fighting with Pakistani gangs — that’s just the way it is. I don’t think that will ever be eradicated.” Of Tayside’s population of 389,000, approximately 10,000 belong to minority ethnic communities. Many belong to the emerging eastern Europe community, some of whom come for short periods to work while others choose to stay longer term. The region also has a large overseas student population attending the various higher education establishments.
Staff at the race awareness and equality group FRAE Fife regularly offer advice to those facing discrimination. Centre manager Naeem Khalid is unsure of the true picture of racism in Fife. He said: “From the figures I feel further investigation work needs to be carried out. Whether the black minority ethnic communities feel there is an decrease in racism in Fife or there is a lack of under-reporting because barriers such as language, or a lack of comprehension of the reporting process, remains to be seen.” The police statistics show there is not an equal divide when it comes to carrying out race crime. In Tayside and Fife the majority of incidents were carried out by caucasians.
A total of 235 people classed as being white UK living in Tayside were identified as having carried out a crime over 2010/11 — a small increase on the previous 12 months. White Scots carried out the greatest number, with 201 complaints. Meanwhile just 11 people with an ethnic background were identified as having carried out a racist crime over the same period. In Fife, 171 white Scots were detected, compared to two of Asian extraction. A Tayside Police spokesman said: “The majority of incidents relate to verbal abuse, criminal damage and other non-violent crime, but that in no way detracts from their seriousness or the adverse affect they can have upon their victim.”
Mohammed Issa (49), who runs six convenience stores across Tayside, wants to see more race support groups to bridge ethnic divides.
The former director of the now-defunct Tayside Racial Equality Council does not consider racism a problem in his day-to-day life, but fears many race crimes go unreported. Mr Issa said: “The demise of the Tayside Racial Equality Council has meant that the community has lost a common place where they can go and seek advice or information. ‘As a result I feel that the channels that were open have now vanished and I am sure that some people are not reporting incidents because they don’t have that support.” Mr Issa believes raising awareness is key. He said: “At my shops we are serving the needs of the local community and really try to offer a safe shopping experience. And that is part of the reason I believe we do not get many incidents of racism — but I know that it is a very different story for other shopkeepers.”
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: FOSIS Are a Good Example of Muslims Engaging With Society
by Assed Baig
Such is the level of racism and Islamophobia in society that when encountered by a politically active Muslim, people automatically seem to put them in the radical or extremist box.
The main problem here is that there is a set of double standards at play for categorising people with political opinions. There seems to be one set of criteria for Muslims and another for the rest of the human race. I have found a simple but effective method for people to determine if a Muslim’s views are extreme or not. If a white non-Muslim was to express the same view would you think they are an extremist? Would it make you look for the number to the terrorism hotline? Or would you accept their views as a legitimate opinion that has a place in the broad political spectrum of society? In the majority of cases Muslims have perfectly acceptable opinions, which tells us that there is a problem in the way we look at Muslims in society. This is understandable in some cases, since we have been fed constant reports linking the words ‘radical’ and ‘extremist’ to Muslims. It is only natural that Islamophobia has now become inherent in society.
The Federation of Student Islamic Societies is anything but radical or extreme, unless you have a problem with Muslims engaging with political and democratic processes and using those avenues to air their views and get involved with wider society. But, I suspect that the critics of FOSIS disagree with the political opinions aired and campaigned on by the federation. Some even have an issue with Muslims, as an entity, airing political opinions whilst standing on a religious ticket. No FOSIS member has served for the military in the Islamic Republic of Iran or any other military. But there are student religious groups whose members have served for the IDF or have gone on to serve for them. FOSIS has never justified suicide bombings of any type, but in 2010 at the NUS conference, the Union of Jewish Students invited a Muslim speaker from CENTRI (Counter Extremism Consultancy, Training, Research and Interventions). This speaker openly told me that he accepted and was comfortable with a fatwa from a traditional scholar in Syria that suicide operations against Israeli military targets were permissible. Extreme? Radical? Or an opinion that is prevalent in the Muslim world? Are the UJS now guilty of what FOSIS is being accused of, inviting speakers that have ‘radial’ opinions?
Some may take issue with the fact that FOSIS campaigns on international politics, specifically their anti-war and pro-Palestinian stance. But for FOSIS to ignore these issues would be to ignore their democratic mandate and disregard the issues their members wish for them to campaign on. These are issues which Muslim students hold close to their hearts and many are affected by. Another argument is that FOSIS members are from the Wahabi/Salafi school of thought — a literalist school of thought emanating from Saudi Arabia. It is true that most FOSIS members I have encountered follow the Wahabi school of thought, however this is not extreme in and of itself. In fact FOSIS’s elected member on the National Union of Students Executive in 2009 was openly a Sufi. Sufis follow a more traditional and spiritual way of Islam and are seen to be more moderate than Wahabis. If anything, FOSIS is more diverse, pluralistic, democratic and representative of Muslims than any other religious grouping within the student movement in the UK.
FOSIS does not have a clandestine radicalisation program that takes students and turns them into extremists. Extremists have political grievances which they choose to air on in illegitimate ways. Extremists will always use examples of victimisation of Muslims engaging in democratic processes as examples of why Muslims engaging in politics is futile and should take up more of an extreme approach. The unfounded targeting of FOSIS plays into the very extremists’ hands that people are so opposed to. Universities are places where young people become radical. They are radicalised by ideas, politics and life. It is a place where you learn and engage in the battlefield of ideas. The problem is that when non-Muslims get political we put them in the ‘lefty’, ‘eco’ or any other political box, but when Muslims get political we just deem them extremists, now that is extreme!
[JP note: Oh no it isn’t!]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Investigation Called for Into How Shamed Tower Hamlets Councillor Shelina Akhtar Was Given Social Housing
Conservative leader for Tower Hamlets Peter Golds has called for an investigation into how disgraced councillor Shelina Akhtar was allocated social housing.
It comes after the independent Spitalfields and Banglatown councillor received a three-and-half months jail sentence for claiming benefits while living with her mother and subletting her Swan housing association flat. Cllr Golds said: “How did a single woman with no housing need, after all she resided with her mother, jump our 23,000 person housing list?” A council spokeswoman said they do not comment on individual cases while Swan Housing said they must complete their own investigation into the subletting before considering trying to evict her. Cllr Akthar has until March 5 to appeal her conviction and it is understood she has not resigned from her position. If her position becomes vacant a by-election must be held within 35 days. Tower Hamlets Labour Leader Joshua Peck is hoping for the by-election to be held on May 3, to coincide with the London Mayoral election, which he says would be most cost-effective and lead to a bigger turn-out than on a separate day.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Ken’s Friends in the East
by Stephen Robinson
On the streets of Tower Hamlets, councillor Peter Golds tends to stick out. For a start, he is a contentedly “out” gay man. In what is now a heavily Asian borough, he is of Jewish origin, and even more unusually, in a neighbourhood where few are proud to be Tory, he is a strident Conservative. These factors combine so that when Cllr Golds stands up to speak in the council chamber, things can turn very ugly in the public gallery. “I get the hissing, the calls of ‘poofter’, they shout ‘Zionist scum’ at me,” he says, sitting in his office at the Town Hall. This sort of treatment can be equally disturbing for a lesbian Labour councillor, who is subjected to other strange heckling. More shocking still than these eruptions from the public benches is that this behaviour is seemingly tolerated, even though Tower Hamlets’s first directly elected mayor, Lutfur Rahman, says he is relentlessly intolerant of sexist and racist bigotry. As Golds said in a formal complaint to the borough police commander, were white skinheads observed yelling abuse at Muslim east Londoners, it would not be tolerated. The worst of the abuse occurred shortly after Rahman’s election in October 2010 but Golds says it continues to this day.
Rahman is a controversial figure. The Labour Party barred him from running as Tower Hamlets mayor, partly over concerns about his links to those around the hardline Islamic Forum of Europe, though he denies any formal contact with the IFE. Under Ken Livingstone’s control of City Hall, hundreds of thousands of pounds of Londoners’ money was granted to the East London Mosque, which is strongly under the control of the IFE. Activists linked to the IFE, via their lobby group Muslims 4 Ken, campaigned for Livingstone’s re-election against Boris Johnson in 2008. Two years later, thwarted by Labour in his bid to run as official candidate for the Tower Hamlets executive mayoralty, Rahman changed his designation to Independent, essentially an offshoot of Respect. He beat the Labour candidate Helal Abbas on a turnout of about 26 per cent, amid allegations of concerted electoral malpractice and mass intimidation at polling stations. The campaign was exceptionally dirty, with Abbas smeared as a wife-beater and a “racist”. But Livingstone travelled into the borough not to bolster the embattled Labour candidate but very publicly to back Rahman.
Ed Miliband, the new Labour leader, failed to follow through on what many activists said should have been Livingstone’s automatic expulsion from the Labour Party for disloyalty.
For those in Labour who have always distrusted Livingstone, his alliance with Rahman is proof that Ken remains an undermining force constantly fighting factional battles on the Left of London politics. But the connection between Rahman and Livingstone runs far deeper. Key loyalists from the days of Livingstone’s control of City Hall have been installed in Rahman’s expanding executive office as London’s mayoral election nears. Tony Winterbottom, who left Livingstone’s London Development Agency on a year’s sabbatical followed by a £75,000 pay-off and £160,000 top-up of his pension fund, is now charging Rahman’s office £1,000 a day. The council says he is working at this rate for “approximately” three days a month.
Murziline Parchment is head of Rahman’s executive office. She was one of Livingstone’s tight circle of political appointees on six-figure packages whose finances were further augmented when, as outgoing Mayor in 2008, he changed the rules to allow her to share a severance pot of £1.6 million. Parchment is now earning for her 30 hours a week less than half of the £126,000 she was paid in City Hall. Also drafted in is Mark Seddon, an old Livingstone supporter and ex-editor of Tribune, as a one-day-a-week “media adviser”.
There are seven other paid contractors in Mayor Rahman’s executive office, one of them Axel Landin, an undergraduate at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Livingstone youth supporter, who is paid £8.39 an hour to advise on “boundary review matters”. “A prototype cabinet for the next Livingstone administration in City Hall has been created inside the mayor of Tower Hamlets’ private office, at public expense, built around Livingstone’s cronies,” says Golds. “It is a vision of what they hope to be the next phase of Livingstone’s rule.”
The Jewish Chronicle believes “Ken has calculated that backing Mr Rahman’s brand of Islamism-lite will win him enough support to justify sacrificing the votes of Jewish, gay or more moderate Muslim Londoners”. In his memoir You Can’t Say That, published last year, Livingstone suggests that his “campaigns against racism and homophobia and for women’s rights” made him a hate figure in the Eighties. Many on the Left wonder why he is now allying himself in Tower Hamlets with forces that wish to see women veiled and are hostile to Israel and Jews in general. When Livingstone last week suggested the Tory Party was “riddled” with closet homosexuals, few who know him well suggested that he is at heart a gay-basher. But why is he so close to groups hostile to the causes he espouses?
The White Swan, a gay pub in Limehouse, is being targeted by the Rahman administration. Hundreds of regulars have signed a petition to stop the council closing down the regular Wednesday night drag queen strip event, which they say is a harmless camp show that could be blamelessly attended in any city centre in Britain. Sections of the gay press worry that the targeting of the White Swan is part of a wider concession to the homophobic impulses of core supporters of Rahman and Livingstone. A spokeswoman for Tower Hamlets, echoing Livingstone’s position, emphasises that the council “has an innovative and proactive approach to tackling inequality and strengthening community cohesion”. Yet despite the rage of many London Labour activists over the original Livingstone switch to support Rahman, most of them now suggest they will support him nonetheless. MP Rushanara Ali, who won Bethnal Green and Bow from George Galloway of Respect in May 2010, says of Livingstone’s backing of Rahman later that year: “He should know better. He is a leading member of the Labour party with a high profile and coming into my constituency and the borough of Tower Hamlets and playing divisive politics, essentially, and not backing up your party at a very difficult time was a low point in his recent political activity.” Nevertheless, she says she will be turning out with much of the rest of the Tower Hamlets Labour base to campaign to re-elect Livingstone in May because “he stands for a set of ideas to improve people’s lives in London that’s better than what Boris Johnson’s about.”
Councillor Shiria Khatun, spokeswoman for the Labour group, is equally adamant that she will support his mayoralty bid. “Ken is a living legend down here in Tower Hamlets, where people are more interested in issues that affect them on a daily basis, such as housing and fares,” she says. A generation after Livingstone first turned on colleagues at the old GLC, he still has the capacity to enrage, confound, yet win over sections of his party, despite the unlikely allies, some with rather dubious links, he finds along the way. Boris Johnson has probably learned the same lesson, that the more he embarrasses David Cameron and George Osborne, the better he does with the wider electorate. Both candidates seem to understand that to run for London, you have to run against your party. The question is whether voters will be as forgiving of Livingstone’s disloyalty as his Labour allies in east London seem to be.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: MI6 Attacks Al-Qaeda in ‘Operation Cupcake’
British intelligence has hacked into an al-Qaeda online magazine and replaced bomb-making instructions with a recipe for cupcakes.
The cyber-warfare operation was launched by MI6 and GCHQ in an attempt to disrupt efforts by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular to recruit “lone-wolf” terrorists with a new English-language magazine, the Daily Telegraph understands. When followers tried to download the 67-page colour magazine, instead of instructions about how to “Make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom” by “The AQ Chef” they were greeted with garbled computer code. The code, which had been inserted into the original magazine by the British intelligence hackers, was actually a web page of recipes for “The Best Cupcakes in America” published by the Ellen DeGeneres chat show. Written by Dulcy Israel and produced by Main Street Cupcakes in Hudson, Ohio, it said “the little cupcake is big again” adding: “Self-contained and satisfying, it summons memories of childhood even as it’s updated for today’s sweet-toothed hipsters.” It included a recipe for the Mojito Cupcake — “made of white rum cake and draped in vanilla buttercream”- and the Rocky Road Cupcake — “warning: sugar rush ahead!”
By contrast, the original magazine featured a recipe showing how to make a lethal pipe bomb using sugar, match heads and a miniature lightbulb, attached to a timer. The cyber attack also removed articles by Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and a piece called “What to expect in Jihad.” British and US intelligence planned separate attacks after learning that the magazine was about to be issued in June last year. They have both developed a variety of cyber-weapons such as computer viruses, to use against both enemy states and terrorists. A Pentagon operation, backed by Gen Keith Alexander, the head of US Cyber Command, was blocked by the CIA which argued that it would expose sources and methods and disrupt an important source of intelligence, according to a report in America. However the Daily Telegraph understands an operation was launched from Britain instead.
Al-Qaeda was able to reissue the magazine two weeks later and has gone on to produce four further editions but one source said British intelligence was continuing to target online outlets publishing the magazine because it is viewed as such a powerful propaganda tool.
The magazine is produced by the radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the leaders of AQAP who has lived in Britain and the US, and his associate Samir Khan from North Carolina. Both men who are thought to be in Yemen, have associated with radicals connected to Rajib Karim, a British resident jailed for 30 years in March for plotting to smuggle a bomb onto a trans-Atlantic aircraft. At the time Inspire was launched, US government officials said “the packaging of this magazine may be slick, but the contents are as vile as the authors.” Bruce Reidel, a former CIA analyst said it was “clearly intended for the aspiring jihadist in the US or UK who may be the next Fort Hood murderer or Times Square bomber.”
In recent days AQAP fighters have capitalised on chaos in Yemen, as the country teeters on the brink of civil war. Tribal forces marching towards the capital, Sana’a, clashed with troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh for a third day running yesterday.
[JP note: No. 96 in the UK government’s loopy campaign to stem the tide of globally resurgent Islam. And I wonder why the Telegraph’s security correspondent, Duncan Gardham, thinks that al-Awlaki is alive — does he have access to special channels perhaps?]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Muslims More Successful at Enforcing Their Religion From Generation to Generation
An academic study by Cardiff University shows that the proportion of adult Muslims actively practising the faith they were brought up in as children was 77%. That compares with 29% of Christians and 65% of other religions. The study also found that 98% of Muslim children surveyed said they had the religion their parents were brought up in, compared with 62% of Christians and 89% of other religions.
The team analysed data from the Home Office’s 2003 Citizenship Survey data, using 13,988 replies from adults and 1,278 from young people aged 11 to 15. This higher passing on of religion from generation to generation is, the researchers say, because of a higher involvement in religious organisations.
The researchers write: “It is well known that there is considerable supplementary education for Muslim children such as the formal learning of the Qur’an in Arabic. The apparently much higher rates of intergenerational transmission in Muslims and members of other non-Christian non-Muslim religions are certainly worthy of further exploration and may in fact pose a challenge to blanket judgements about the decline of British religion. These higher rates might suggest support for the theory that for minority ethnic populations, religion can be an important resource in bolstering a sense of cultural distinctiveness.”
Children are sent to madrassas and mosques to be heavily indoctrinated into Islam. Co-author of the study, Professor Jonathan Scourfield, added: “Muslim children tend to lead busy lives, often attending religious education classes outside school three or more times each week on top of any other commitments they have. They typically learn to read the Qur’an in Arabic. They also learn a great deal about their faith from parents and other family members. Religion can have an especially important role for minority communities in keeping together the bonds between families from the same ethnic background.”
Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said: “When one is raised to believe that a particular religion is your whole identity and this idea is heavily reinforced in childhood by constant indoctrination in mosques and madrassas as well as at home by parents who have been similarly brainwashed, then there is little wonder that most Muslims cannot think outside a religious box.”
Mr Sanderson said that the Christian churches try to use the same techniques and it is why they are so anxious to take control of education. “Unfortunately for them,” he said, “our society is free and able to explore other avenues and be open to other influences. Muslim societies are very conservative and can deal very severely with anyone who dissents from the central message. When alternatives are assiduously suppressed, there is no wonder that one world view predominates so strongly among Muslims.”
The research paper, entitled ‘Intergenerational transmission of Islam in England and Wales: evidence from the Citizenship Survey’ and Sociology is published by the British Sociological Association.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: University Islamic Societies Are Not ‘Hotbeds’ For Radicalisation
by Reyhana Patel
In recent months there has been considerable debate both in the media and in government, of university Islamic societies being “conveyor belts” for extremism and terrorism. The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS), the umbrella organisation for student Islamic societies, has been particularly singled out as an organisation which “are training the violent extremists of tomorrow.” Home Secretary, Theresa May, has also outlined her concerns for the need to tackle extremism within University Islamic Societies. Now let us look at the flip side of this argument, or as many of us would like to put it, the reality of how these groups operate first of all, and if violent extremism is really widespread in student Islamic societies.
Established in 1963, FOSIS is a body that caters for the needs of Muslim students in further and higher education across the UK and Ireland. It aims to represent and serve Muslim students, unite all existing student Islamic organisations in the United Kingdom and Ireland and encourage and help in the formation of such organisations. From charity functions to Islamic lectures to political debates, FOSIS has an impressive track record of grassroots democracy, mainstream activism and charity work throughout university campuses across the UK and Ireland.
I’ve had the opportunity of attending a number of FOSIS events including the FOSIS 2007 annual conference at the University of Nottingham. I would far from say FOSIS is promoting extremism and terrorism. I would emphasise that they play a vital role in combating extremism with events such as ‘Radical thinking — between extremes of freedom and security on campus” held at the University College London (UCL) which discussed extremism and attended by many individuals involved in fighting extremism in the UK.
The FOSIS 2010 annual conference also tackled radicalisation in its programme with speakers such as the Guardian contributor, Jonathan Githens-Mazer and Professor Anthony Glees, a previous consultant to the War Crimes Inquiry in the Home Office. Other events and campaigns have included Service Fast Stream Careers Evening, Grandparents Day and an annual charity week event. How could any of these events be close to “training the future generation of violent extremists?”
Islamic societies, just like most other religious student societies, exist to assist Muslim students balance their studies, religion and social activities while at university. During my time as a student at the University of Birmingham, I attended many University of Birmingham Islamic Society events ranging from political debates to spiritual talks and sports events. It helped me as a student to meet other Muslims on campus as well as have fun the ‘Islamic’ way. I was not ‘radicalised’ or drawn into violent extremism.
While critics have claimed that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, also known as the underwear bomber, who tried to detonate explosives while on board a US airline, was radicalised at UCL’ s Islamic Society, there has been no evidence to indicate that was the case.
Anyone with knowledge on extremism and terrorism would know that many studies have shown that radicalisation stems from a range of factors and that no individual can be radicalised by one single method such as watching YouTube videos or being exposed to extremist views. It is therefore, premature to claim that the Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was radicalised as a result of his involvement with UCL’s Islamic Society.
Shaykh Haitham al-Haddad, an Islamic scholar who was scheduled to speak at a London School of Economics Islamic Society event, sparked controversy by critics who branded him as a ‘hate preacher’ and a negative influence on Muslim students. However, he is the chair and operations advisor for the Muslim Research and Development Foundation, part of the Islamic Sharia Council and is known for his knowledge in Islamic finance. He is labelled as ‘controversial’ but not a ‘terrorist.’ University Islamic societies and groups like FOSIS are part of the solution not the problem when it comes to fighting extremism. Even NUS president, Aaron Porter issued a statement in response to Theresa May’s accusations of FOSIS: “Facing up to the challenges that non-violent extremism brings to campus life requires careful support and guidance from government, not wild sensationalism that only serves to unfairly demonise Muslim students. In our experience, groups like FOSIS are part of the solution, not the problem.”
Instead of jumping to conclusions and labelling groups who are playing a part in combating extremism as “terrorists”, wouldn’t a dialogue with FOSIS be more productive or perhaps critics should actually attend some of FOSIS’s events to understand what student Islamic societies are all about?
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Why Isn’t Mayor Rahman More Famous?
Back in the 1980s council leaders on the “loony left” such as Derek Hatton and Ken Livingstone had high profiles. (By the way whatever happened to Livingstone?) Matthew Parris wonders (£) why the directly elected Lutfur Rahman Mayor of Tower Hamlets doesn’t command more media attention. In The Times this morning Parris writes about the White Swan pub in Limehouse which has an “amateur strip night” on Wednesday evening and says:
Now Ken Livingstone’s ally Lutfur Rahman, the “elected” (he got 13 per cent of the vote) mayor of Tower Hamlets, and his Sharia-tinged administration propose closing down this jolly, historic East End boozer by designating it a sex establishment. The consultation exercise was launched from the East London Mosque. The entire Conservative group on the council (I’m proud to say) has supported a petition against closure. Read Andrew Gilligan’s long-running blog on Rahman. It’s incredible that he has not become a national story. I’ve known the White Swan since the 1990s. It’s a pub, not a sex establishment. Nobody is exploited. The atmosphere at Mr Amateur Strip night is burlesque, with a drag queen sending up audience and contestants alike. Paul O’Grady (now of Radio 2) used to compere here.
As I’ve never taken part in this strip night it is difficult to be too conclusive about that aspect although instinctively I agree with Parris description of “Mayor Rahman and his misery guts band of spoilsports.” But where he is surely on to something is the broader point that the media (really, I suppose, the Evening Standard, since the BBC are hardly likely to) should have given Rahman far more scrutiny.
At least they have done a bit more recently. In today’s edition they report the local Labour MP Rushanara Ali for Bethnal Green and Bow, saying of Livingstone’s backing of Rahman: “He should know better. He is a leading member of the Labour party with a high profile and coming into my constituency and the borough of Tower Hamlets and playing divisive politics, essentially, and not backing up your party at a very difficult time was a low point in his recent political activity.”
[Reader comment by EastEndBoy on 17 February 2012 at about 9 am.]
If you read Parris’s piece he quite conclusively proves that the White Swan’s “amateur strip night” is nothing more than burlesque and comedy. Mayor Rahman wants it shut down because — horrors — it’s a gay pub, and that doesn’t fit with the Islamic fundamentalism coming out of the East London Mosque who are Mayor Rahman’s biggest backers. If you want other lines of attack on him read Andrew Gilligan’s blog. The reason we don’t hear more about this man is because any attacks on him are spun by the left as Islamophobia and racist.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican: Baroness Warsi Keeps Faith by Giving the Pope a Koran
Baroness Warsi today handed over a copy of the Koran and a gold-plated cube inscribed with references to Allah as personal gifts to the Pope. The Cabinet Office minister and chairman of the Conservative Party met Benedict XVI at the conclusion of a trip to the Vatican, also presenting him with a letter from David Cameron, a message from the Queen and a copy of the King James Bible. Baroness Warsi said the Pope thanked her for comments she made this week against secularism, adding “he said he was glad I was making the case for faith”.
[JP note: Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth?]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
EuroMed: EP Approves Facilitation of Southern Products
Convention on rules of pan-Euro-Mediterranean origin
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, FEBRUARY 16 — The Strasbourg Assembly has backed the regional convention on “rules of pan-Euro-Mediterranean origin”, which sees the simplification of the application of customs rules on products from the EU’s 22 partner countries. An overwhelming majority of Euro MPs (528 voted in favour, 51 against and 11 abstained) backed the proposal. This single agreement will replace the sixty bilateral deals with the Faroe Islands (Denmark), EFTA countries (the EU plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein), and partner countries on the southern shores of the Mediterranean (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the West Bank and Gaza) and in the western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo).
The new rules make it possible to determine the country of origin. By adopting the convention, Euro MPs also want to extend the preferential system to western Balkans countries, in order to facilitate the future enlargement of the EU. By making the application of these rules more simple, it will be easier to improve access by third party countries in the Mediterranean to the EU market, sending out a “clear message” of openness, in the wake of the Arab Spring. The European Parliament has complained at the presence of commercial blockades between countries on the southern shores and says that the benefits from the application of the convention will form part of a network between all EU partners in the southern and eastern Mediterranean. The regional convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean origin rules is currently being signed by the countries concerned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mediterranean: 5+5; Work Together With EU and Italy, Egypt
Focus on investments, tourism and immigration
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, FEBRUARY 16 — Egypt wants to form closer ties with Europe and strengthen its strategic partnership with Italy, focusing on concrete aspects like investments, support to tourism and the battle on illegal immigration. This picture emerged from the assessment made by leaders and experts on the eve of next Monday’s ‘5+5’ summit in Rome, the dialogue forum between the two shores of the Mediterranean that includes the Foreign Ministers of Italy, France, Malta, Portugal and Spain for Europe, and Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia for the southern shore. This year the forum will be expanded to include Egypt, Greece and Turkey in Formed format, and the secretaries of the Arab League and Union for the Mediterranean will also join the session.
Arriving at its ninth edition, the dialogue conference takes on a special value due to the Arab Spring and the difficult period of transition Egypt and other countries are going through. Italy has expressed its support to this transition during the visit of Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi on January 19 to Egypt, where he had meetings with the highest Egyptian authorities.
Last week Italy’s special envoy for the Middle East, Maurizio Massari, also visited the country. Terzi has announced that Italy will convert the third tranche of Egypt’s debt, totalling 100 million USD, into an immediate investment in projects in Egypt. Egyptian diplomatic sources have explained to ANSA that Egypt and the EU must work together during this transit, to deal with issues like illegal immigration, the revival of trade and to take advantage of Europe’s experience in democratic transitions.
Egypt, they explained, needs the EU’s support to form a democratic regime and to boost trade. Cairo is also looking at the European countries, the sources underlined, to recover the funds that have been exported abroad by members of the ousted regime. Focusing on relations with Italy, the diplomatic sources pointed out that Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr will give priority to economic aspects, in a difficult economic situation with foreign currency reserves falling from 18,199 billion USD by the end of 2011 to 16.354 billion by the end of January 2012, nearly a 10% drop. Egypt, the sources added, is looking at Italy for support in its tourism sector. The Minister, sources in the European Affairs Ministry said, will also have meetings with representatives of the main Italian companies that are active in Egypt, part of the campaign of the Egyptian government meant to reassure foreign investors. Egypt, analyst of the al Ahram think-tank Hanaa Ebeid told ANSA, expects Europe to step forward now that its relations with the U.S. have cooled over the investigation into NGOs, involving two large U.S. organisations. “Egypt” she explained, “had high ambitions for Europe, which for the moment has an attitude of ‘wait and see’ due to the unstable situation in the country. We think the EU can help us get through this transition because of the trust that exists between the two parties. We hope that Italy will continue to cooperate with us, particularly on immigration and economic partnership.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco-EU Trade Deal Draws Fire
BRUSSELS — The European Parliament has signed off a trade deal with Morocco which poses questions about the status of Western Sahara. The pact, agreed Thursday (16 February), liberalises EU-Morocco trade in agriculture and fisheries and ups the quotas for zero or low duty imports between the two.
EU agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos called it “a balanced agreement, which opens new opportunities for our producers in Europe and paves the way for a real reinforcement in our relations with Morocco.” It will knock off 55 percent of tariffs on Morocco agricultural products and fish and up to 70 percent of tariffs on the EU equivalent within 10 years.
Some restrictions apply to “sensitive” produce such as tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, tangerines, garlic, zucchini and sugar. MEPs say the deal will support the country’s transition to democracy while alleviating economic and security problems.
Agriculture accounts for 38 percent of the kingdom’s workforce, while unprocessed fruit and vegetables from Morocco account for 80 percent of its total imports into the EU, reports Reuters.
“The European Parliament was rightly in favour of the democratic transitions that were taking place in the so called ‘Arab spring,’ and strongly in favour of measures encouraging economic stability in North Africa,” said British Labour MEP and rapporteur David Martin.
Some tomato growers do not like it. On Tuesday, Spanish farmers dumped 200 kilos of tomatoes on the doorstep of the European Parliament’s office in Madrid in protest. Their unions say the deal risks undermining 450,000 jobs in the vegetable sector.
But other critics have more serious concerns. Opponents say the deal flaunts international laws that prohibit commercial exploitation in the Western Sahara, however. The region — the size of the UK — was annexed by Morocco just before the Spanish pulled out their colonial masters in 1976.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Party Threatens to Review Treaty With Israel
The Islamist party that leads the new Egyptian Parliament is threatening to review the 1979 peace treaty with Israel if the United States cuts off aid to the country over a crackdown on American-backed nonprofit groups here. The pact is considered a linchpin of regional stability, and the statements, from at least two senior leaders of the party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, represent the first time that Egyptians have explicitly raised it during an escalating standoff over the crackdown.
The Obama administration and Congressional leaders have already warned Egypt that the United States might cut off its annual aid to the country, which in the most recent budget came to $1.3 billion in military supplies and about $250 million in other subsidies, including some money directed to the nonprofit groups under investigation. At least two senators have introduced legislation that could curtail the aid, and the Brotherhood released its statements on Thursday as the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on the matter.
Leaders of the Brotherhood have said that they would respect the American-brokered 1979 treaty, and the seriousness of their new threats is hard to assess. Many analysts, as well as some Brotherhood leaders here, have cited internal domestic reasons to respect the treaty, mainly because it ensures peaceful borders at a time when Egypt can ill afford the cost of a military buildup and its economy teeters on the brink of collapse.
But at the same time, Egyptians have long considered American aid as a kind of payment for preserving the peace despite the popular resentment of Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians, widely seen here as a violation of the treaty.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Tourism Minister: 33% Fewer Arrivals Amid 2011 Uprising
(ANSAmed) — RHO-PERO (MILAN), FEBRUARY 16 — Egypt recorded a 33% fall in tourist arrivals in 2011 as a result of the revolution that brought down Hosni Mubarak. The revolution has made the country less safe from the point of view of tourists, with only 10 million recorded last year. But the country’s Tourism Minister, Mounir Fakhri Abdel Nour, has said that Egypt “is looking at 2012 with optimism”, despite continuing protests and demonstrations in recent weeks.
Abdel Nour commented that “it is the media that has created the perception that there is danger, concentrating on bad news and looking for sensationalism, but outside of the square kilometres around Tahrir Square, everything is safe and calm”.
The fact that remains that 50% fewer Italian tourists visited the country last year, perhaps in part as a result of the financial crisis. Speaking ahead of the BIT Tourism Show at Fieramilano, where Egypt has a major promotional stand, the minister was keen to reassure potential travellers after the sector’s turnover fell from 12.5 to 9 billion dollars in 2011.
For the next few years, Abdel Nour said, “we have very ambitious plans: attracting 30 million tourists by 2017, and investing to increase the capacity of airports, ports and hotels”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Israel a Haven for Arabs
Op-ed: Under Israel, Arabs enjoy life that many in neighboring countries can only dream of
David Ha’ivri
Anti-Israel propagandists claim that Israel is an apartheid state that discriminates against Palestinians on a racist basis. They repeat this accusation over and over like some kind of mantra, in order to make it stick to the image of Israel, regardless of the truth.
There are a number of questions that should be asked of the PR wizards who invented this line of assault:…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Buys More Grains for Rubles, Dodging Sanctions
Iran has bought large quantities of wheat from various countries lately. Using Russian rubles as payment for its trade deals, the country has sought to work around a series of western sanctions.
Iran bought almost half a million tons of wheat this week using rubles as payment, traders told Reuters news agency on Thursday. Private buyers were also reported to be in talks to import further tonnage from Russia in a bid to work around western sanctions.
Traders said Tehran had become more active on international grain markets, having bought a total of 1.1 million tons over the past two weeks. It invariably deployed non-dollar and non-euro currencies with dealers, who also confirmed talks on barter deals involving oil and gold.
Iran’s total grain purchases from February through April of this year were put at 420,000 tons of wheat of German origin, at least 300,000 tons from Canada, 240,000 tons of Brazilian origin and another 200,000 tons of wheat coming from Austria.
Sanctions start to bite
New financial sanctions were imposed on Iran at the beginning of this year in an attempt to punish that country over its nuclear program. The measures in place have had heaviy impact on Iran’s ability to buy imports and receive payments for vital food items.
Traders said future deals would most likely continue to be done primarily in rubles, with Iran eager to dodge European Union and US currency restrictions.
Despite the resourcefulness of Iranian traders, western sanctions appear to have seriously disrupted the country’s grain imports, particularly its yellow corn supplies. Domestic Iranian corn prices have shot up by up to 25 percent since the sanctions went into force.
Despite conflicting reports on whether or not Tehran might cut crude oil exports to Europe in revenge soon, oil markets on Thursday fell alongside equities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Echo of Moscow Under Pressure in Russia
The independent radio station Echo of Moscow has long been seen as a paragon of quality journalism in Russia. Now, however, Gazprom is moving to take control of the station’s supervisory board. Many fear tough times ahead for press freedoms in the country.
In Soviet times, former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once said, a visit to Moscow had to include three stops: the Kremlin, the Bolshoi Theater and Lenin’s mausoleum on Red Square. She went on to say that, once the Soviets fell, the first two remained requirements. But the third item on the itinerary had changed. Instead of viewing the dead revolutionary’s wax mummy, American delegations preferred to stop by the decidedly lively offices of the radio station Echo of Moscow.
The news broadcaster was founded in 1990 and has since made a name for itself with its independent news and analysis as well as for its pointed critique of the Kremlin. In the morning, star columnist Anton Orech takes aim at the Russian leadership, while in the evening, sharp-tongued journalist Julia Latynina resumes her broadsides against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. And hundreds of thousands of people listen attentively.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bungling Iranian Bombers Pictured Partying With Prostitutes Before Botched Bangkok Attack
The three bungling Iranian bombers detained in Bangkok after they accidentally set off their explosives cavorted with prostitutes at a beach resort days before the botched attacks.
A photograph has emerged of the trio cosying up to sex workers, surrounded by hookah-pipes and drinks, in a bar in the notoriously sleazy city of Pattaya.
The revelation comes as it emerged police are now hunting for two more suspects, including a possible bomb expert, they think helped the trio as they set about targeting Israeli diplomats.
The foiled plan was discovered on Tuesday when explosives in the men’s rented house blew up by mistake, forcing them to flee.
Two men, including one who blew off his own leg when he hurled a grenade at police but it bounced back at his feet, were detained in the Thai capital.
A third was captured the following day in Malaysia as he tried to return to Iran.
After flying into the southern city of Phuket on February 8, the men moved to Pattaya, 45 miles southeast of the capital, and stayed there for at least two nights before heading to Bangkok.
It was there that the group met with prostitutes, one of which was brought to Bangkok to identify the suspects yesterday.
A mobile phone image taken by one of the women, published by the Bangkok Post, purportedly shows the three Iranians at a Middle Eastern bar or restaurant.
They appear to be surrounded by hookah water-pipes, two of them cradling women in their arms, the men posing for a photo around a low, drink-filled table on which there appeared to be at least one bottle of beer.
The woman who took the photograph said one of the now-detained suspects, Mohammad Kharzei, had asked her to escort him ‘because he was not good at speaking English’.
She said she brought two companions for Kharzei’s friends, and they had drinks and played snooker together.
The woman detected nothing awry, except when one of the Iranians ‘barred her from approaching a closet’ in his hotel room.
The botched plot has ratcheted up tensions between Iran and Israel, which is accusing Iran of waging a covert campaign of state terror that included a bombing Monday in New Delhi that tore through an Israeli diplomatic vehicle, wounding an Israeli diplomat’s wife and driver, and a failed bomb attempt the same day in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
India: Accused Pastor in Kashmir Given Reprieve
A court has ordered the Jammu and Kashmir state government to temporarily halt criminal proceedings against a pastor accused of bribing Muslim youths to convert to Christianity. The state’s High Court on Saturday (Feb. 11) halted proceedings in the police complaint of “promotion of religious enmity by conversions” against the Rev. Chander Mani Khanna of the Church of North India denomination. Responding to a petition by the pastor to quash the complaint, the court issued notices to top officials of the state’s police department and interior ministry because investigators have not been able to formulate charges even though the case was registered last Oct. 29, Pastor Khanna told Compass by phone. Pastor Khanna, who retired on Jan. 16 from All Saints Church in Kashmir Valley’s Srinagar city, seemed relieved. “After I was released on bail, the court had asked me not to leave the state, but with this stay order I can at least travel out,” he said.
The pastor, who remained in jail for more than 40 days until he was released on bail last Dec. 1, added that the court asked the government to file its response by March 14, and then it will set the date for the next hearing. Police have not been able to gather evidence of “conversion by allurement” against Pastor Khanna. The pastor added that real victory will be achieved when he is allowed to return to Kashmir, in the Muslim-majority region of the state. “We do not want to retaliate,” he said. “We want to promote the spirit of acceptance, accommodation and tolerance and be salt to the community in Kashmir for the betterment of the whole country.”
Kashmir’s sharia (Islamic law) court, which has no legal authority in India, in December found Pastor Khanna, the Rev. Jim Borst, a Dutch Catholic missionary and Gayoor Messah, a Christian worker, guilty of “luring the valley Muslims to Christianity” and ordered them to leave the state. The court, headed by Kashmir Grand Mufti Bashir-ud-din Ahmad, also “directed” the state government to take over the management of all Christian schools in the region.
Muslim leaders had been rallying against Christians after a video posted on YouTube last October showed the baptism of formerly Muslim youths at All Saints Church. The sharia court summoned Pastor Khanna and held a hearing before announcing its verdict against the three pastors. Life has been extremely difficult for Kashmir’s Christians since the sharia court’s verdict, said a Christian worker who fled the region last month along with 15 others. Muslim clergy, he told Compass, claim to have converted 155 Christians back to Islam.
“But I don’t believe that,” added the source, who said he fled fearing police would force him to speak against Pastor Khanna. “I have spoken to some of them, and they said they neither denounced their faith, and nor did they embrace Islam. Out of fear, they listened to the ‘advice’ while remaining non-committal.”
Local online news portal Kashmirwatch.com late last month reported that an Islamic seminary in north Kashmir was working with 115 converts to bring them back to Islam. “We are collecting details,” it quoted a seminary official as saying. “We would try to catch them all and persuade them to revert to Islam.” Local Christians say the sharia court has formed area committees to prevent conversions and reconvert Christians. Committee members are visiting Christians’ homes and allegedly pressuring them and their families to return to Islam. Kashmirwatch.com reported that over 20,000 Kashmiri Muslims had converted to Christianity since separatist militancy erupted in Kashmir in the 1990s. According to a September 2002 report in Christian media in the United States, it reported, the number of “neo-Christians” was 15,000. “The conversions are likely to have surged past 20,000, with over a dozen Christian missions and churches based in the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland operating in the state,” the news portal stated. Local Christians said the report in the U.S. media was not accurate.
While most Muslim leaders have turned against Christians and the state government is apparently unconcerned about their safety, a highly influential separatist group has spoken out for Christians. Syed Ali Shah Geelani, head of a faction of the Hurriyat Conference separatist political front, has reportedly said his group does not support the sharia court’s fatwa calling for the expulsion of a few Christian workers from the state. “Banishing someone is no solution,” the Kashmir Times quoted him as saying. “As Muslims, it is our responsibility to ensure that we reach out to our youth and create awareness about Islam.” The 82-year-old leader also acknowledged the contribution Christians have made to Kashmir. “They are part and parcel of the society,” he reportedly said. “It is our duty to protect them. Kashmiris cannot ignore the contributions of Christian missionary schools towards the educational system in the Valley. Unfortunately, Kashmiri Muslims have not been able to build an educational institution like those by the Christian missionary schools despite all available resources.”
A fact-finding team, which included a senior official of the National Commission for Minorities, visited Kashmir from Nov. 29 to Dec. 2 last year. It learned that some extremist groups and other vested interests had been trying to use the issue of conversion in their confrontation with the state government, political parties and moderate Islamic groups. They were “looking to score political points against each other, and any excuse was good enough to foment trouble,” the fact-finding team reported. The state government apparently sided with the extremists to preempt any unrest, local residents told the fact-finding team.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China to Launch 3 Astronauts to Space Laboratory by August
China’s next space mission will launch three astronauts to a prototype space station module orbiting high above Earth, possibly in June, according to state media reports. The mission is slated to launch sometime between June and August atop a Long March 2F rocket, the Xinhua news agency reported Friday (Feb. 17). The mission, which will be China’s fourth manned spaceflight, will send a crew into orbit aboard the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft to rendezvous with the country’s prototype space station module Tiangong 1.
China launched the Tiangong 1 space lab into orbit in September 2011. An unmanned space docking test followed soon after, with the robotic Shenzhou 8 spacecraft successfully linking up with the orbital space lab in November. Unlike the Shenzhou 8 mission, the manned Shenzhou 9 flight will demonstrate a manual space docking, according to Xinhua. The three-person crew will then stay aboard to live, work and perform science experiments.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Japan’s Megaquake Disturbed Creatures Beneath the Sea
Japan’s magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered the release of a methane plume from the ocean crust to the east of Japan — carrying microbes that live in the crust along with it.
When the earthquake struck the Pacific coast of Tohoku on 11 March 2011 it shifted the seafloor 7 metres vertically and 50 metres horizontally. Thirty six days after the quake, Shinsuke Kawagucci and colleagues at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology took water samples from depths of up to 5.7 kilometres at four spots along the Japanese trench, near the earthquake’s epicentre.
They detected a large plume of cloudy sea water — some 500 km long, 400 km wide and 1.5 km tall — as measured from the lowest point of the trench. It was still there 98 days later, when Kawagucci returned to sample the water again.
The cloud was packed with methane at concentrations 20 times higher than before the quake. A particular carbon isotope found within the plume’s methane matched isotopes uncovered deep within the ocean floor during a previous ocean-drilling expedition of the Japanese trench. “The methane came from the deep sub-seafloor,” says Kawagucci.
It’s estimated that as much as two-thirds of Earth’s total prokaryote biomass lives within oceanic crust , but very little is known about them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Family Films Teens Trying to Kick in Door
A family has filmed four teens threatening to kill them and attempting to kick in their front door of their home at 3.20am this morning.
The footage, sent to ninemsn, shows the gang terrorising the family of four for several minutes in West Kempsey on the Mid North Coast.
David Collins, 42, said a group of young people had previously set fire to a bin outside his home and police told him he needed to film their faces if they came back.
This time he was ready — but so were his assailants, wearing bandanas to conceal their identities.
“Where’s your camera! Where’s your camera!” one of the thugs yells as he smashes the family’s front window.
Moments later Mr Collins walks up to his fly screen door and films the man — less than a metre away — trying to kick his way inside.
“I’ll kill you mother f——-,” the man can be heard shouting.
Mr Collins’ wife Angela can be heard on the phone speaking to a triple-0 operator throughout the attack.
“Yeah I hear you, you white piece of trash!” one of the attackers, who are of Aboriginal appearance, shouts when she asks for police to be sent.
By the time police arrived at the home the men had left, leaving behind a damaged front gate, bent security door and a broken window.
Sergeant Chris Buckley from Kempsey Police Station said they had reviewed the footage and their investigation into the incident was continuing.
Mr Collins said he was frustrated by the number of questions asked by the triple-0 operator before a police officer was dispatched.
“You could hear these people were trying to get in, we have two daughters and they were threatening our lives,” he said.
“We only live two minutes from the police station in Kempsey. The operator held my wife on the phone asking stupid questions.”
He said the operator took close to three minutes on the phone before saying he would dispatch a police officer to the scene.
A spokeswoman with NSW Police would not refer to the specific phone call, but told ninemsn that before triple-0 dispatchers would send a police car they required essential information.
She said in cases of potentially life-threatening incidents dispatchers tried to assess the situation as best they could to know what they were sending police officers into and if they needed back-up.
Mr Collins, whose daughters are 15 and 12, said he was “living in fear” and wanted his family to leave West Kempsey as soon as possible, but his financial situation was making it difficult.
“My wife and I are both on Aus Study, we’ve got very little money in the bank,” Mr Collins said.
“By the time we pay our bills, we’re broke.”
He said he had spent the day in Port Macquarie speaking to housing commission managers about finding a new home for his family, but was referred back to the Kempsey area.
“My biggest concern right now is the safety of my family. I’m going to try to secure the security screen right now. I don’t want to be here and risk my childrens’ lives,” Mr Collins said.
[Obviously it’s racist of the white man to want the aboriginal teenagers to leave him in peace. — Nilk]
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Western Pupils Lag Asians by Three Years: Study
(SYDNEY) — Western schoolchildren are up to three years behind those in China’s Shanghai and success in Asian education is not just the product of pushy “tiger” parents, an Australian report released Friday said. The study by independent think-tank The Grattan Institute said East Asia was the centre of high performance in schools with four of the world’s top systems in the region — Hong Kong, South Korea, Shanghai and Singapore.
“In Shanghai, the average 15-year-old mathematics student is performing at a level two to three years above his or her counterpart in Australia, the USA and Europe,” Grattan’s school education programme director Ben Jensen said. “That has profound consequences. As economic power is shifting from West to East, high performance in education is too.”
Students in South Korea were a year ahead of those in the US and European Union in reading and seven months ahead of Australian pupils, said the report, using data from the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment.
The PISA, pioneered by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, has become a standard tool for benchmarking international standards in education. The study said that while many OECD countries had substantially increased funding for schools in recent years, this had often produced disappointing results and success was not always the result of spending more money.
Australian schools have enjoyed a large increase in expenditure in recent years, yet student performance has fallen while South Korea, which spends less per student than the OECD average, had shot up, it said. “Nor is success culturally determined, a product of Confucianism, rote learning or ‘tiger mothers’,” the report said, the latter a reference to ethnic-Chinese parents who push hard for their children to succeed.
It said Hong Kong and Singapore had made major improvements in reading literacy in the past decade, while the tests by which the students were ranked was not conducive to rote learning as they required problem solving.
The report said the best systems focused on a relentless, practical focus on learning and teacher education, mentoring and professional development, rather than greater spending.
The East Asian systems were also unafraid to make difficult trade-offs to achieve their goals, with Shanghai, for example, raising class sizes to up to 40 pupils but giving teachers more time to plan classes and for research.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard stressed the need for Australia to perform well given its place in the most economically dynamic part of the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Oasis of Tiny Life Discovered Beneath Desert
A test run for a biological detector intended for Mars has found salt-loving microbes living just below the surface of the Atacama Desert in North Chile. Scientists from Spain and Chile used an instrument called SOLID (Signs of Life Detector), which they developed for Mars missions, to detect the microbial life in the desert. Atacama subsoils are thought to be a good stand-in for areas on the Red Planet.
The soil between 6.6 and 9.8 feet (2 and 3 meters) below the surface of the desert contained a “microbial oasis,” Victor Parro, a researcher from the Spanish Center of Astrobiology and the study’s coordinator, said in a statement. By analyzing less than 0.02 ounces (0.5 grams) of sample material they collected, the team found bacteria, other single-celled microbes called archaea, as well as biological material, including DNA, which forms the instruction code for life.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Canada’s Supreme Court Denies Exemption From Quebec Relativism Course
OTTAWA, Ontario, February 17, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) — In what’s sure to come down as a devastating blow to parental freedom, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously rejected this morning the pleas of a Christian family to have their child exempted from the Quebec government’s mandatory ethics and religious culture course.
“Exposing children to a comprehensive presentation of various religions without forcing the children to join them does not constitute an indoctrination of students that would infringe the freedom of religion of L and J,” the justices wrote in the majority decision.
The high court’s ruling, released at 9:45 Friday morning, comes in the case of S.L. et al. v. Commission scolare des Chênes et al., which involved a Catholic family who took their school board to court after it refused to grant their child an exemption from the province’s controversial ethics and religious culture course (ERC).
The course, which seeks to present the spectrum of world religions and lifestyle choices from a “neutral” stance, was introduced by the province in 2008 and has been widely criticized by the religious and a-religious alike. Moral conservatives and people of faith have criticized its relativistic approach to moral issues, teaching even at the earliest grades, for instance, that homosexuality is a normal choice for family life.
Despite provincial legislation allowing for exemptions from school curriculum, the Ministry of Education has turned down over 1,700 requests, and had even moved to impose the course on private schools and homeschoolers…
| — Hat tip: Van Grungy | [Return to headlines] |
More Marriages Cross Race, Ethnicity Lines
Marriage across racial and ethnic lines has reached a new high in the U.S. amid fading social taboos in an ever more diverse society. About 15% of new marriages in the U.S. in 2010 were between individuals of a different race or ethnicity, more than double the share in 1980, according to a report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. Among those married in 2010, 9% of whites, 17% of blacks, 26% of Hispanics and 28% of Asians married outside their ethnic or racial group.
“Intermarriage in this country has evolved from being illegal to being a taboo to being merely unusual,” said Paul Taylor, the Pew official who edited “The Rise of Intermarriage” report. “With each passing year, it becomes less unusual.” Shifts in behavior, attitudes and demographics-including immigration-have contributed to the intermarriage trend, which the report analyzes based on historical data and Census Bureau figures from the annual American Community Survey from 2008 to 2010.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Christians ‘Aren’t Above the Law’, Says Equalities Chief Trevor Phillips
Christians who want to be exempt from equality legislation are like Muslims trying to impose sharia on Britain, Trevor Phillips, the human rights watchdog, has declared.
Religious rules should end “at the door of the temple” and give way to the “public law” laid down by Parliament, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said.
He argued that Roman Catholic adoption agencies and other faith groups providing public services must choose between their religion and obeying the law when their beliefs conflict with the will of the state. Mr Phillips singled out the adoption agencies that fought a long legal battle to avoid being forced to accept homosexual couples under equality laws. Last year, following a High Court case, the Charity Commission ruled against an exemption for Catholic Care, an adoption agency operating in Leeds. Speaking at a debate in London on diverse societies, Mr Phillips backed the new laws, which led to the closure of all Catholic adoption agencies in England. “You can’t say because we decide we’re different then we need a different set of laws,” he said, in comments reported by The Tablet, the Catholic newspaper.
“To me there’s nothing different in principle with a Catholic adoption agency, or indeed Methodist adoption agency, saying the rules in our community are different and therefore the law shouldn’t apply to us. Why not then say sharia can be applied to different parts of the country? It doesn’t work.” He added that religious groups should be free to follow their own rules within their own settings but not outside. “Once you start to provide public services that have to be run under public rules, for example child protection, then it has to go with public law,” he said. “Institutions have to make a decision whether they want to do that or they don’t want to do that.”
Mr Phillips’s remarks were condemned as “inflammatory” and “ridiculous” by legal specialists and religious leaders. Lord Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, called on the authorities to respect the nation’s heritage as a democracy in which the Church of England is the established religion. He described the comparison with sharia as “ridiculous” and called on MPs to find ways of “accommodation” when new laws clash with religious beliefs. “I have argued in the past that there can be only one law to which all should be accountable. But we are not starting with a blank sheet of paper as far as religion is concerned. We are a democracy in which Christianity is established in the Church of England and a nation profoundly influenced by this faith in its Catholic and Anglican heritage. We need lawmakers to respect this heritage and seek accommodation wherever a strongly held faith seems to clash with new legislation.”
Legal experts called on Mr Phillips to clarify his comments about sharia — Islamic law — which many associate with draconian punishments such as stoning adulterers to death. Neil Addison, a barrister and director of the Thomas More Legal Centre, said: “The EHRC is so obsessed with equality that it has lost sight of freedom. It would prefer people not to do good, rather than to do good on their own terms.” The comments were “inflammatory”, said Andrea Williams, director of the Christian Legal Centre. “These comments are deeply illiberal. They are intolerant,” she said. “Trevor Phillips fails to understand the nature of faith and what inspires faith and what makes agencies like Catholic adoption agencies so selfless.” The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, said that Mr Phillips appeared to be applying a “totalitarian view of society”. “Trevor Phillips in the past has argued for respect for Christian conscience,” he said. “I am very surprised that here he seems to be saying that there should be a totalitarian kind of view in which a believer’s conscience should not be respected.” While the basic principles of sharia contradict Western public law, the issue for Catholic adoption agencies was one of “respect for conscience”, he said. “They are two different issues.”
Mr Phillips’s remarks threatened to add to controversy over the role of religion in Britain. Last week, a High Court judge ruled that it was unlawful for local councils to include Christian prayers in their formal meetings after a legal challenge by an atheist former councillor who objected. The ruling immediately pitted the Government against the courts as ministers urged councils to defy the ban. Bideford council in Devon decided last night to appeal against the decision. Baroness Warsi, the chairman of the Conservative Party, warned earlier this week that the forces of “militant secularism” reminiscent of “totalitarian regimes” were threatening traditional society. Then the Queen made a rare intervention in the debate, arguing that the Church had been “misunderstood” and was “under-appreciated”. Mr Phillips has been outspoken in his defence of human rights law even when they conflict with religious beliefs. He has accused some Christian groups of being more militant than Muslims.
During the debate, he praised both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches for their work in inner cities, particularly through faith schools, but accused some religious groups of growing intolerance. “There is something rather odd that is happening amongst what I call the righteous brigade, that is people of good will and so on,” Mr Phillips said. “And that is that if you don’t agree 100 per cent with them and excoriate people who have a different point of view actually somehow you are joining a bad bunch of people.” Keith Porteous Wood, director of the National Secular Society, said Mr Phillips was “absolutely right”. “If society has decided that it wants to ensure by law that every citizen of this country has equal rights, then there cannot be endless exemptions for religious bodies or anyone else,” he said. “There is no such thing as partial equality, and every time an exemption is made, someone else’s rights are compromised.” In 2008 Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, caused consternation when he claimed that it seemed “inevitable” that elements of Islamic law, such as divorce proceedings, would be incorporated into the British legal system.
[Reader comment by saxon on 17 February at about 10:26 am.]
The time is coming when we will need to take back our country from the likes of Trevor Phillips and the PC whackos who are doing everything in their power to erase the identity of the indigenous population. Diversity and multiculturalism are part of an evil cancer to destroy our society and its cohesion. The main weapon to keep us in our place is to call all dissenters racists. You can see on this message board today the number of people who start writing about “all the racists on here today” as somehow they have some moral superiority. I have news for them it is not racist to prefer your own kind as that is called human nature and that you will never change. Protecting my identity, my ethnicity and my heritage in my own land is NOT RACIST, it is my right!!!!
[Reader comment by Allectus on 17 February at about 10:24 am.]
Nobody is demanding that Christians should be “above the law”. The real question — the one which Phillips disingenuously avoids — is whether the law should reflect the Christian cultural heritage of the indigenous population of the British Isles. Most people — including many agnostics like myself — believe that it should. Migrants have chosen to lead a new life in a new country, so they should clearly be under an overriding to integrate with the cultural values of their host community. I can, however, see no compelling reason why the host community should be under any particular obligation to embrace the alien, and at times hostile, cultural values of migrants. It may be true that the UK hasn’t done enough to welcome immigrants, or to acknowledge the value of the contribution of some migrant communities to our national prosperity and well being: but the price of acceptance is cultural integration, and some migrant groups, typically the least successful economically, seem to be drifting ever further away from this goal. The state shouldn’t sponsor non-indigenous minority cultures, particularly where they are clearly dysfunctional; nor should it extend to them any kind of special status under the law. This approach — that is, multiculturalism — has demonstrably and spectacularly failed over the past few decades. Although it is not for the state to force individuals to adopt one culture rather than another — any more than it should enforce “respect” for minority cultures — those who refuse to adopt the norms and values of the host or mainstream culture should be allowed to face the consequences of their rejection by the majority: marginalisation, exclusion, poverty and irrelevance. This is not a choice I would recommend.
[JP note: In the UK, it would appear, equality is only for Muslims.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Equality Activists, Not Christians, Are Imposing Their Beliefs on Others — Whatever Trevor Philips Says
by Ed West
What would Britain do without the Equality and Human Rights Commission? I imagine it would literally collapse within five years and the country would be plunged into a generation-long civil war if we didn’t continue to hand over large amounts of money to Trevor Phillips and co. The latest words of wisdom from the leader of the organisation are reported in today’s paper.
Speaking at a debate in London on diverse societies, Mr Phillips backed the new laws, which led to the closure of all Catholic adoption agencies in England. “You can’t say because we decide we’re different then we need a different set of laws,” he said, in comments reported by The Tablet, the Catholic newspaper. To me there’s nothing different in principle with a Catholic adoption agency, or indeed Methodist adoption agency, saying the rules in our community are different and therefore the law shouldn’t apply to us. Why not then say sharia can be applied to different parts of the country? It doesn’t work.”
What exactly is the point of this organisation? The EHRC evolved from the Commission for Racial Equality, which was established in 1976 to fight racial discrimination and racism generally, with a remit that was broad and unending. The CRE was established with the Racial Discrimination Act 1976, which followed earlier acts in 1965 and 1968, the aim of which was to outlaw discrimination on racial grounds. Previous to this Britain never had such laws, partly because it had very few non-Europeans, but primarily because it was generally believed that it was not the state’s business to interfere in people’s private business. Some Tories did object to the 1968 bill, most notably Enoch Powell, who was inspired to make his notorious Birmingham speech as a result. The background to this had been the Sikh bus drivers’ strike in Wolverhampton, in which men from the Indian subcontinent had walked out over company policy concerning facial hair and turbans. Powell quoted Labour MP John Stonehouse, who was highly critical of the Sikhs. Stonehouse had said:
“The Sikh communities’ campaign to maintain customs inappropriate in Britain is much to be regretted. Working in Britain, particularly in the public services, they should be prepared to accept the terms and conditions of their employment. To claim special communal rights (or should one say rites?) leads to a dangerous fragmentation within society. This communalism is a canker; whether practised by one colour or another it is to be strongly condemned.”
Powell, who had extensive experience of India, was disturbed by what might happen if Indian-style communitarian passions inflamed England. Indeed the Sikhs won the strike not because of appeal to British liberalism or common sense (personally I don’t see anything wrong with a bus conductor wearing a turban) but because one of their number threatened public suicide. This created a precedent of communal exemption, such as the right of Sikhs to not wear motorcycle helmets. These earlier questions, which often involved the unusual but not obtrusive traditions of Sikh men, look rather tame and innocent compared to the later cultural conflicts, which mostly involve Islam, and became serious in 1989 following the Salman Rushdie fatwa.
These exemptions were created for the benefit of recent arrivals, although there have been precedents. Quakers have long been allowed exemptions in wartime because of their pacifism; however British society did demand some compromise (Quakers would still be expected to do some, non-violent, war work) and the strange quirks of these small minorities were undemanding compared to the difficulties of a diverse society. Even Catholics, who had a troubled relationship with Britain, had very little difficulty in adapting to a country that had after all been Catholic for a millennium (the issue of loyalty effectively died with the French Revolution, and later conflict was mostly about Ireland).
However at the same time as the state was establishing regulatory bodies and laws to police a multicultural society, British society was itself going through huge social changes that would eventually put such groups, and much of native British opinion, in conflict with the law. If you had told someone in, say, 1962 that fifty years from now Britain would have sharia courts operating up and down the country, and at the same time it would be illegal for an adoption agency to refuse to place a child with a same-sex couple, and yet we still don’t have robot servants or a moon base, it’s safe to say that he would probably be quite surprised. Sharia law is, after all, a completely foreign concept to England, and controversial because it means in effect a parallel legal system, going against the principle of one law for all. That is quite different to the principle of allowing Quakers to drive ambulances in wartime, or, for that matter, allowing Christian and Muslim medical staff to refuse to perform abortions.
Catholic adoption agencies, on the other hand, were expressing conservative resistance to fairly recent and radical social changes. As it is I think they were perfectly justified, just as Christian B&B owners are within their rights to refuse same-sex couples a bed, not because I necessarily share their moral views (I support the rights of gay B&Bs to operate their discriminatory policies too, who are also threatened by equality law), but because that amount of state interference to eradicate discrimination is an alien, intolerant innovation that has no place in a free and liberal England. The recent embarrassments of Richard Dawkins, who threw a culture war to which no one turned up, suggests (I think) that most people are quite reasonably in the middle on these issues, and happy to take a pragmatic issue on these questions as and when they come. We don’t need to be regulated like this, we don’t need so many equality laws, and we certainly don’t need the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Did Otherworldly Music Inspire Stonehenge?
Five thousand years ago, so the legend goes, two pipers played in a field while a circle of merry maidens danced around them. Then they all turned to stone, leaving Stonehenge to mystify us for millennia. Other theories about the stone circle’s purpose include an alien observatory, a burial site and an acoustic stadium.
Here at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver, Canada, archaeoacoustician Steven Waller — an independent researcher based in La Mesa, California — threw yet another idea into the mix. The stone circle, he says, may have been inspired by an auditory illusion that occurs when two identical instruments, such as pipes, play the same note at the same time. A person walking in a circle around the pipers hears the note’s volume decrease at certain points where the two sound waves collide and cancel one another out. At these spots, it sounds as though a giant pillar is blocking the sound.
Perhaps, Waller proposes, the ancients thought these silent points were invisible walls from the spirit world. They may have then arranged Stonehenge and the stone circles like it as very physical, 40-tonne incarnations of these walls.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
DNA Origami Nanorobot Takes Drug Direct to Cancer Cell
How is this for a clever robot? Tiny probes built from DNA can seek and destroy cancer cells, leaving healthy cells untouched. These clam-like bots, which release their drug payload only when they reach and identify their target, could improve many treatments for disease. Shawn Douglas and his colleagues at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute have used “DNA origami” to build the nanorobot.
The team designed the device with DNA modelling software that understands how DNA base pairs bind together, as well as the helical structure that results. When they enter a shape of their choosing into the program, it returns a list of DNA strands that can be mixed together to create the desired shape. The shape that Douglas and his colleagues had in mind was clam-like, so that the nanorobot could hold a drug dose inside until it was time to deliver it.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
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